But, even leaving aside Morten’s feelings, it had been wrong of Botha to mention the hunter at all. The CEO undoubtedly knew that a Norexploration employee was suspected of stealing sensitive information – the teach-in had been brought forward as a result of the suspicion. Maybe he simply didn’t know that Hawkeye was the employee in question. This morning’s pre-meeting session to discuss the thefts would have put him right, but it had been abandoned because of the police search. Whatever the explanation, it was potentially a huge PR blunder, the kind of carelessness that could come back and bite the company on the backside.
Gunnar was aware that Morten was glaring at him, but he pretended to be engrossed in the CEO’s presentation. He would give the old man time to calm down then deal with him later.
Apparently oblivious of the ripples he had caused, Hansie Botha continued with his summary. “The re-survey has confirmed that the deposits of nickel and copper are very substantial,” he said. “And as a bonus, as you can see from the photograph, the re-survey showed that there are hitherto undiscovered deposits of cobalt in the proximity of Olstappen lake – significant deposits.”
He tapped his keyboard and when a graph appeared on the screen he said, “In his presentation,Terry McEwan will also review the recent commodity-price history of nickel, copper and cobalt. The graph demonstrates that it is essentially a story of volatility – mainly caused by growth and decline in the world’s major economies. But as Terry will show, prices have also benefitted from supply-side constraints, notably those resulting from restrictions on the export of nickel imposed by the Indonesian government in 2014.”
Leaving the graph on the screen, Botha now pointed in Gunnar’s direction. “When Terry has finished,” he said, “we will then have a few words from Gunnar Hoveng, who is our local expert on land-ownership and property rights. He is our ‘fixer’, if you like, the person who makes sure that there are no obstacles. He has been a key partner for several months and has been handling all aspects of local liaison. He has been able to assist us with several land purchases and land swaps.”
When Gunnar stood up to nod and smile, he caught the eye of Terry McEwan and could see he was looking flustered. Obviously the photo of the hunter had taken him by surprise, too.
“After the morning sessions we will break for lunch,” Botha said. Clearly - and to Gunnar’s relief – he was coming to the end of his presentation. “Then we will take you out and show you the lie of the land. We will travel on snowshoes and - as promised - we will combine the hard work with a visit to Hell! Or, at least, to a canyon that goes by that name. But I promise that all of you who have lived lives free from sin will be allowed to return to the hotel to enjoy complimentary use of the bar for the rest of the evening.”
“What about the rest of us?” somebody shouted.
“You will suffer an alcohol-free penance - at least until dinner-time.”
“Oh, no!” someone shouted. “That really would be Hell!”
Amid the laughter, Hansie Botha smiled broadly and sat down. He looked, Gunnar thought, like a man who was confident that nothing could now go wrong.
Gunnar wished he could share that confidence. But when he felt Morten Espelund’s hand on his arm, he feared that he could not.
Surprisingly, the old man appeared thoughtful rather than angry. He said, “Gunnar, I’d like to talk to you outside.”
“Fine,” Gunnar said. “But you’ll need to wait half an hour. I have to stay here for the next session.” He suppressed a sigh. “I guess this is about Hawkeye.”
“Yes, it is. I feel that I’ve been double-crossed.”
“Morten, I’m sorry you feel that way. But at the beginning of this winter we needed someone to help us, and Hawkeye seemed a good choice.”
“It’s not the beginning of this winter that bothers me. In the photograph, Hawkeye was walking past a signpost, and I recognised that signpost - because I was once responsible for maintaining it. It was at the bottom of Vesterheim’s ski-piste when I was in charge of the hotel. The wood was badly rotten, so I replaced it with a new sign before I left. That means the photograph of Hawkeye is more than four years old.”
Gunnar was puzzled. “So what’s the problem?”
“There are two problems. The first is that our friends in Norexploration were doing a survey on what was then my land, but without asking my permission. The picture of Hawkeye wasn’t taken at beginning of a winter but at the end of one, when there was hardly any snow left on the ground. At that time of year I always closed the hotel and took a holiday in Spain, to recover after the long winter season. Everyone in the valley knew I did that, so Norexploration would have realised that the hotel would be empty and that they wouldn’t be spotted doing their survey.”
Morten got to his feet, aware that the next session was about to start. He said, “The second problem is that although Hansie Botha said the cobalt deposits have only recently been discovered, the truth is that Norexploration knew about them a long time ago. And so did Hawkeye Skaugen.”
Chapter 41
In the side-ward at Lillehammer hospital, while Elin Olsen was talking on her phone, Cally took a closer look at the small box that had fallen out of the hotelier’s bag. The packaging was not quite what she was used to. The paper was a different colour, and the label had a different style of typing. But the box was a familiar shape and size, and when she picked it up and shook it gently it made a familiar sound.
She checked the address. Lillehammer. Not Vesterheim Mountain Hotel.
Aware that Neep was watching her, she took a moment to run over things in her mind. She was now very jumpy from the dangerously low level of benzodiazepine in her system - it was now two days since her last pill - and she didn’t know whether she could trust her judgment. She went over to the laptop and backtracked through the browsing history. If she was right, the whole sorry jigsaw was fitting into place.
As soon as Elin finished her call, Cally stood up and confronted her. “Did you collect this other package today, from your boyfriend’s house?”
“Yes, I did,” Elin replied, visibly surprised by the abrupt tone of the question.
“Will you open it for me?”
“Why? What has it got to do with anything?”
“Elin, I need to know, has Ash ever asked you to marry him?”
“Well, yes he has. Many times.”
“And you have said no?”
“That’s right. But - ”
“ - And has he told you that he would like to have a child with you?”
“Well, yes he has, but I really don’t see why you are asking - ”
Cally cut her off. “And have you told him that you don’t want to have a child?”
Elin hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.
“And are you on the pill?”
“Yes, I am.”
Although the Norwegian woman was clearly getting angry, Cally wasn’t finished. “And when you are having sex do you use any other protection, like condoms or a cap?”
Elin picked up her bag and started toward the door. “I’m sorry but this is too much. The last twenty-four hours have been really hard for me, and I don’t need all this.”
Cally blocked her path. “The last twenty-four hours have been really hard for all of us. So please answer two more questions before you go. Do you get any headaches or hot flushes? And does your boyfriend do a lot of cooking for you, or make you a lot of drinks?”
Elin’s anger flared but then subsided just as quickly. “The answer is yes - to all your questions. But please tell me where all this is going. And please stop shouting at me as if I was your enemy.”
Cally tore the wrapping from Elin’s package and opened the light card box that it contained. On Neep’s over-bed table she spread several strips of pills. They were unmistakably oral contraceptives. She said, “My guess is that these are fakes. And I would also guess that you’ve missed your last period, and maybe also the one before that.”
�
�How could you possibly know all that?” Elin asked. She seemed totally defeated.
Cally was careful not to look at Neep when she answered. “I get packages that look exactly like that - small and light and wrapped in plain paper. Mine come from an online pharmacy and I guessed that yours did, too.”
She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I use the company for medication for a psychiatric problem. But I first learned about it from a girl who bought fake contraceptives from it, so that she could trick her boyfriend into getting her pregnant. She was living in a care home. She was seventeen and she knew she would be chucked out on her eighteenth birthday. Pregnancy was her way of avoiding homelessness. As well as the fake pills, she bought real Clomid, which is a fertility treatment. Its side-effects are headaches and hot flushes – just like you’ve been having.”
Now Cally allowed herself to look at Neep, and was unsettled to see that he showed no surprise whatsoever.
Elin was caught somewhere between indignation and confusion. “But why would Ash try to make me pregnant against my will? And how does that tie in with everything else?”
Cally wished there was a kind way to answer those questions. She said, “Elin, I’m really sorry to say this, but have you ever asked yourself why Ash would want to get into a relationship with you in the first place? You’re at least ten years older than him. And - forgive me - maybe you’re not as pretty as you once were, or as slim. You run a hotel that is struggling to keep going and you don’t have much money in your bank account. On the other hand, Ash is young and good-looking and could probably get any woman he wanted. And he is rich enough to own a helicopter and a nice car, and to buy thousands of pounds worth of shares in a mining company.”
Elin reddened. “Thanks for trying to spare my feelings.”
Cally stepped forward impatiently. This was no time to be charming. She was just about to say so, when she caught her reflection in the window: arms in the air, head thrust aggressively forward; the reflection of a distraught woman having a rant. She realised she probably looked just as hysterical to Elin as Elin did to her. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I wish I had put that in a nicer way.”
Making an effort to calm down, she pointed to the computer. “The statement from the mining company says there are big deposits of nickel and copper to the north of the Espedalen valley. But the biggest deposits of this other mineral - cobalt - are on the east shore of Olstappen. And if I’m not mistaken that means that some of those deposits are on the Vesterheim site. Your piste goes right down to Olstappen.”
At last Cally seemed to have said something that Elin could connect with.
“Let me see that announcement again,” Elin said.
Cally selected the news update and stood aside while Elin read it. After a moment the hotelier said, “It’s not just our piste that goes down to Olstappen. Vesterheim’s site extends for several hundred metres along the hillside.”
Neep asked, “Why does the hotel need such a big site?” He seemed pleased to get back into the discussion.
“The company that owned the hotel before I did was planning to enlarge the ski piste, and it bought some more land. It went bankrupt, but the title to the extra land remained with Vesterheim.”
“And that land is now rich in minerals,” Neep said. Then he asked, “Does your boyfriend know how big Vesterheim’s site is?”
“Not from anything I told him.”
“But you agree that if Ash married the owner of Vesterheim he could now become a very wealthy man?”
“Yes, but only in principle. For even if we were married, and even if I did have a child, I would never sell Vesterheim. Ash knows that. And anyway, the planning authorities would never allow the mining company to excavate so close to a tourist hotel.”
Cally was just about to speak when Neep put up his hand to stop her. “Elin, I know you’ve had a hard time and it must feel like we are bombarding you with questions. But tell, me, did your boyfriend ever work in the north of Norway, in Svalbard?”
Elin said, “Yes, he did. Lots of helicopter pilots have worked in Svalbard, because of tourism and mining. Why do you ask that?”
“Because this morning the police told us that the explosives that were planted at your hotel were part of a consignment stolen from Svalbard. And, just like Cally, the more I think about all this, the more I can see Ash fitting into it – Ash and his helicopter.”
Elin stayed silent, waiting.
“In the mountains where we were touring,” Neep said, “three people are dead -”
“- Three people are dead?”
“Yes, three people. “One is the hunter, Hawkeye. One is our friend Richard. And the third is somebody who had been trying to kill us. They all died in different places and last night we told the police where they could find the bodies. But when they went to search, all three bodies were gone. And a helicopter would have been a great way to move them.”
“Yes, but it’s a great way to be seen doing it,” Elin said. “It’s really hard to sneak around in a helicopter, you know. They do make rather a lot of noise.”
Neep clearly sensed that the hotelier was flaring up again. He held up a hand as a warning to Cally, who had again been about to say something, and then he continued, “Yes, I know how noisy Ash’s helicopter can be. It flew over us on the first day of our ski tour. So he would have to be desperate to take the risk of using it. But maybe he has done desperate things before – and maybe he’s planning to do more.”
Before Elin could respond, Neep spelled it out. “What Cally said about Ash wanting to make you pregnant, so that you would marry him, makes perfect sense. But it raises a big question - why would he bother? If all he wanted to do was make some money out of a mining company that he somehow knew was about to announce a big discovery, then he could just have bought the shares himself. There would be no need to put them in your name, or make you pregnant, or marry you. He would make a healthy profit when the share price rose on the news of the discovery. But if he wanted to make a lot of money, an awful lot, he could also exploit the mineral rights. You say that the planning authorities would never allow the mining company to excavate so close to the hotel, and you say that Ash knows you wouldn’t sell it. But what if he blew it up? Pretended it was the work of a bunch of right-wing nationalists? If he blew up the hotel, he would get rid of the tourist attraction.”
“Unless someone rebuilt the hotel.”
“Elin, if Vesterheim is struggling financially - and I’m sorry, but I think it is - then no one is likely to want to rebuild it.”
“But nobody has blown up Vesterheim. All they did was plant one or two small bombs, which the police said would not have done any real damage. Their only effect was to get the sports weekend cancelled -”
“– Which has made sure that Vesterheim is empty and unguarded right now,” Neep said. “The police said the explosives found in the hotel were just part of the consignment that was stolen in Svalbard. And that could mean that Ash and his accomplices still have some left over, maybe lots. If they blow the hotel up now, when it is empty, and make everyone think it is the work of crazy right-wing extremists, then a few police will chase them for a little while. But if they had blown it up when it was full of immigrant children, like real extremists would do, then they would have been chased for the rest of their lives, by every police officer in the country.”
“And then after it is blown up, Ash Kumar settles down with his fat and ugly wife and lives happily ever after.” Elin said quietly, as if to herself.
“Maybe not for ever after”, Neep said. “If we are right, Ash Kumar and the people he works with are violent and ruthless. And they would be quite capable of getting you out of the way. Like they did with Hawkeye and Richard. And like they almost did with me.”
Before Elin could reply, the door opened and the doctor came in.
When he saw Elin he looked appalled. He said, “I think I told you that the police – “
“Don’t worry,” Eli
n interrupted. “I was just leaving.” She turned to Neep and Cally and said, “I’m going back to Vesterheim. I don’t know if you’re right about what is going to happen. But if you are right, I want to try and stop it.”
She picked up her bag and walked quickly out of the room.
Ignoring the doctor’s protests, Cally slipped her feet into her trainers and hastily tied the laces. She took her fleece from a bag in the cupboard and started toward the door.
The doctor said, “Miss Douglas, you must stay here. The police have said that you are not permitted to leave the hospital.”
“I’m sorry,” Cally said. “But I need to stop that woman before she does something stupid.”
The doctor held out a small medicine bottle. “I think you should reconsider that decision. I’ve brought you some sedatives, the benzodiazepines that you asked for, and I suggest you take one now and get back into bed.”
Cally’s indecision lasted only a moment. Then she snatched the bottle from the doctor’s hand and ran off along the corridor.
***
After the commotion had died down and the doctor had gone, saying he needed to make an urgent phone call, Neep sat back in his bed, thinking.
It all made sense.
The problem was: it didn’t make enough sense.
He reached forward and got the laptop. He put it on the bed table and then made a few searches. Then he thought things over and made a few more searches. Then he got out of bed, aware of the drip tube’s needle tugging painfully at the back of his hand. He wheeled the drip-stand over to the cupboard, got his phone out of his black bag and made a call.
The voice at the other end said, “Matt Alexander, business desk.”
“Hi Matt. It’s Neep. Good to know you’re at work so early.”
“Well, we’ve got a manpower crisis. My only colleague is swanning around in the Norwegian mountains. He is allegedly on a ski trip, but right now he sounds as if he is drunk.”
The Red Mitten Page 24
